Vigan City from a Different Perspective

A couple of months ago, we talked about our agency’s annual mentorship program, wherein our senior creatives are paired up with our interns to take on a branding challenge. Back in 2015’s mentorship program, the teams were tasked to brand the country’s top tourist destinations.

The winning duo, Deaf designers Hannah and Ben, worked on the branding of the capital of Ilocos Sur Province, Vigan City. Vigan is best known as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. The place is sure to leave visitors in nostalgic awe with its rich cultural background reflected in its well-kept colonial structures.

A Fresh Take On The City

City branding is a fairly new practice that aims to turn a “location into a destination”. It gets easier to distinguish a place once branding techniques are applied to it. Not only does this boost tourism, it also improves the way of life of the people who inhabit it.

Ben and Hannah’s creative process starts with several options for the logo

Vigan’s key cultural aspects are what inspired their logo of choice

Thinking ahead, they visualized where the branding would be applied

They saw that their designs were also flexible enough to be applied to tourist items

Even their choice of material to be printed on was carefully chosen to reflect the character of the city

Materials that would help boost promotion of the city were also conceptualized

Ben now works full-time at Bluethumb as one of our junior designers. He shares that the challenge gave him an avenue to build his skills. Moreover, it helped him discover his strengths and weaknesses as a designer. When asked how he thinks design can help Vigan’s tourism industry, he answers, “Vigan can share its heritage through unique and beautiful designs that are inspired by their cultural experiences. These can be applied to various collateral materials that will also showcase its people’s creativity.”

Hannah, on the other hand, has this to say about the challenge:

“Our ultimate goal was to build on the existing perception that tourists have of Vigan. We want the end result to be a reflection of how colorful the province is.” Given the chance, she wants to visit the province so she can see if the designs they came up with will suit Vigan’s character.